NHK demos Hybridcast streaming, teams up internet and cable TV for superior 3D delivery

With all the hubbub surrounding competing 3DTV technology, it's easy to forget the all important delivery process: how is your TV getting its content, and what does it mean for the viewer? It may seem trivial, but the answer is all-too important to the folks at NHK, who are hoping to facilitate Full HD delivery for 3D content using a new hybrid broadcast system. Think you already have Full HD 3D? Think again: most broadcast 3D content is delivered via side by side transmission, forcing two images (one for each eye) into a single 1080p frame. This allows 3D content to pipe through existing HD channels, but when the separate images are reconstituted and upscaled, resolution and picture quality suffer. NHK hopes to resolve this by fusing broadcast transmission with broadband streaming, what it calls Hybridcast. In a recent dual-stream demo, NHK sent the image for one eye over standard HD TV broadcast pipes, and the other through those wondrous internet tubes, eventually reassembling the two streams into a single, Full HD image, ready for your hungry eyeballs. This prototype delivery system is little more than a demo right now, but with any luck, it'll be giving us a whole new reason to freak out about broadband bandwidth caps in the near future.

Tech-On

NHK (pdf)

Netflix updates Android app, expands device support

Tired of content providers bossing you around, telling you what you can do with your own phone? Good, because Netflix is sick of telling you kids to keep off its lawn. Following a recent update, the outfit's Android app now officially supports the LG Revolution, Motorola Droid, Casio G'zOne Commando C771, and any unsupported device that just happens to work on its own. In addition to adding official support for the aforementioned trio (and of course, some minor bug fixes), the stream king removed a device check that previously blocked unsupported handsets from attempting playback. Your mileage may vary, but the folks over at Droid Life are reporting success with both the Droid X and Droid X2, as well as the Xperia Play. That's no guarantee for you and your unsupported device, but at least you have the freedom to fail. That's nice, isn't it?

Android Central

Android Market

Samsung's Explore 3D video on demand service hits the US

Well, it looks like folks in the US didn't have to wait that long to get Samsung's new Explore 3D video on demand service after all. Just over a week after launching in the UK, the app has now made its way to capable Smart 3D TVs in the United States, complete with "dozens of pieces of free 3D content," including trailers, music videos and educational content. What's more, while it's limited to free content right now, Samsung says that it will expand into paid content "later this year," and offer feature films from some as yet unnamed major studios (no word on pricing just yet). The app should be available from Samsung's SmartHub right now.

Hands-on with Netflix for Android

Netflix for Android is here... finally. It's been a long time coming and we're thrilled to be able to bring our instant queue with us wherever we go. Though technically only approved for a handful of HTC phones and the Samsung Nexus S, we were able to successfully get it up and running on at least one unsanctioned device -- the Droid X (sporting a leaked copy of Gingerbread). So what's Netflix like on Google's mobile OS? Well, it's a heck of a lot like the iPhone app. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart if it weren't for the tabs being moved from the bottom of the screen to the top. Still, we figured it was worth giving a solid once over and, as usual, you can find our impressions after the break.

Netflix for Android hands-on

Everything is more or less as you'd expect upon launching the app. The home screen shows your top picks (including those disturbingly specific genres like "visually-striking mind-bending comedies") and just below the tabs is a shortcut to resume the last video you watched. Along the top you'll also find tabs for genres, search, and your instant queue. Tapping on a title opens a more detailed view that shows a summary and similar videos, as well as offers you the chance to add it to your queue, rate it, or just start playing right away.

Streaming performance over WiFi is excellent -- videos load quickly and are crisp and clear. Over 3G quality is still respectable, but there is some noticeable pixelation and buffering can take quite a while. We are slightly frustrated that navigating away from Netflix to answer a text or simply locking the screen forces the videos to buffer again. Though the UI is responsive enough, the app itself is quite slow to launch and searches sometimes take quite a long time to complete, especially over 3G.

Pressing the search button quickly opens the search tab and the back button works exactly as it should but, oddly, the menu button does absolutely nothing, deviating from the expected Android experience. Another pair of complaints we have are the lack of landscape support while browsing through the app and the somewhat confounding absence of a scroll bar for indicating your position in a list. We also wish there were some more robust options for managing your queue. As it stands you can add things, remove them, or (if they aren't already in your queue) move them to the top, but rearranging is out of the question.

If you happen to own one of the few handsets that supports Netflix (the HTC Incredible, Nexus One, Evo 4G, G2, or the Samsung Nexus S) you can snatch it up in the Android Market now for free. If not, you'll just have make do with the video above.

Cisco phasing out FlipShare: 30 days to save your videos

Many Flip fans are already sporting black arm bands with little red spots in honor of the dying brand, and the New York Times reports there's more bad news coming. Starting May 12th, all videos uploaded to FlipShare will expire 30 days after they've been posted. This applies to videos you've already uploaded as well --- so you've got till June 11th to follow the lead of Google Video users and back up your collection of clips before they disappear into the digital ether. The FlipShare service will continue to live on for another two and a half years, if you don't mind the one month limit, but clearly Cisco wants users to move on with their video-sharing lives. Check out the more coverage link for instructions on how to export your videos, and let's have one more moment of silence for the tiny camcorder that could... at least until it couldn't.

New York Times